Columns

Enjoy a run-down of our recent long-form pieces, both game-specific and more general. You might also be interested in our list of all of our columns and recurring articles. [Follow this category’s RSS feed]

Hyperspace Beacon: The SWTOR Summer roadmap might get you back into PvP

14
Star Wars: The Old Republic producer Keith Kanneg just dropped the next roadmap earlier today, outlining the features upcoming before September and a little bit beyond....
Moth fight.

Choose My Adventure: Starting fresh-ish in Final Fantasy XI

9
This is actually a Choose My Adventure that I was somewhat reluctant to do for a long time, simply because... well, in some ways,...

Chaos Theory: A changing of the guard in the Secret World Legends

5
As a fan of the wonderful world that Secret World brought us, do you cringe or grin with excitement when Secret World Legends news...
No. Uh-uh.

The Daily Grind: Is lack of text chat in an MMO a dealbreaker for you?

48
I wouldn't be able to play TERA on console. Not simply because I lack the console it's available on; that could be fixed by...

Perfect Ten: How MMOs can become more accessible

33
Back in the late 1990s and early 2000s, I was remarkably reluctant to enter into the field of MMORPGs despite being a perfect candidate...

Global Chat: The MMO expansion lifecycle

0
With the ever-developing, ever-growing nature of MMORPGs, the expansion truly has a life of its own. By now we are well acquainted with the...
Not pictured: Rabbits. We don't know what they'll look like yet.

Wisdom of Nym: The last batch of Final Fantasy XIV patch reveals

2
You know, I seriously could have sworn that I publicly predicted the next Final Fantasy XIV patch would be out on May 22nd. But...

EVE Evolved: Getting new players to stick with EVE Online

38
EVE Online has the odd distinction of being one of the most impenetrable MMOs on the market today and yet also one of the...

One Shots: First MMO loves

25
What was your first? Not necessarily the first MMORPG you ever played, but the first that made you fall in love with that game...
They're big, you see.

The Daily Grind: When have you felt loneliest in an MMO?

54
One of the things that no one discusses about MMOs is the way that they can be lonely. The presence of so many people...

LOTRO Legendarium: A whirlwind of activity in Lord of the Rings Online

14
If you haven't noticed already, an extended silence from me in this column space usually means that I've taken a break from Lord of...
Nope.

Betawatch: Boxes of sand survival for Conan Exiles and Wild West Online (May 11, 2018)

0
Sometimes, the title "survival sandbox" might seem a bit inaccurate or limiting. But then you get into stuff like Conan Exiles and Wild West...
No biscuit

Choose My Adventure: Ultima Online, we didn’t need to do this

12
Yes, this is going to come in as the shortest Choose My Adventure series, but I feel it's got a good reason to be...

The Survivalist: The good, the bad, and the barbaric of Conan Exiles’ launch

20
If the survival genre is any indication, Early Access is a nigh indestructable beast! Time and time again we've seen where so many have...
Zorp.

The Daily Grind: What would (or already did) convince you to buy an MMO lockbox?

52
Look, we know, none of the people reading this right now like lockboxes. And, you know, for good reason. But despite that dislike, lockboxes...

Tamriel Infinium: Deep-diving the mechanics of Elder Scrolls Online Summerset’s Psijic Order skill line

14
Many MMO gamers - including me - are a bit underwhelmed by the next chapter of the Elder Scrolls Online. Although Summerset is not...
Never gonna get it, never gonna get it.

Perfect Ten: You got your MMORPG in my tabletop RPG

25
Tabletop games and MMORPGs seem like they would go well together, but remarkably they often don't. That's true for several reasons, but one of...

Global Chat: MMOs need to do ‘difficulty’ right

19
A thinkpiece that we had back in April about the difficulty levels (or lack thereof) in MMORPGs sparked some interesting discussion among gaming bloggers...
VOID

Wisdom of Nym: The Alliance Raids of Final Fantasy XIV

1
When the next major Final Fantasy XIV patch arrives later this month, we'll be staring down the games eighth alliance raid. That might not...

Guild Chat: When sibling rivalry is ruining MMO guild relations

9
Welcome along to Guild Chat, the column through which I attempt to resolve all of your guild-related issues with the help of the Massively...